Melanie Light

Melanie Light has worked within the art department on a multitude of television and film projects for over ten years, as both Stand-by Art Director and Production Designer. Her work has taken her all over the world, introducing her to a wealth of experiences that not only honed her career skills but gave her the drive to make her own films.

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Alter Films

THE HERD

Q & A

Name a Horror character you relate to on a spiritual level? Who is your Horror spirit animal?

The Witch!

You’ve gotta go through some bad ideas to get to the good ones. Tell us one of your bad ideas. How do you get past the bad ones to find your spark?

Going to Nevada to make a short film with a crew of 5 people and shooting over 48hours whilst trying not to kill my DOP boyfriend. We managed to shoot the film and make something cool in the end but it was horrific and we had to go back to ADR the whole thing, I should have spent money on a good sound recordist! Making big ideas a reality is hard but with quick thinking and experience you can find ways to make things work.

Do you consider yourself part of a horror community?

I like to think I am but as I am striving to make that first horror feature film then I think I have a real chnace of being part of that community!

When you’re building the world of your film, where do you look for inspiration?

When world building I look to the real world, I look through images online and create a folder of inspirational images, I look at books and spend hours looking at trailers, films TV shows, but the random things I sometimes see everyday happening globally really does resonate with me, I am a very observant person.

What would you do if you woke up inside of your film?

If I woke up insed The Herd I would cry! I personally could not think of anything worse, being impregnated, milked, forced to have babies and being treated like a product to then get killed, horrific! Which is what female cows go through everyday!

Who would be on your ultimate horror villain squad?

Leatherface, Pinhead, Carrie White, The Alien Queen, Sadako

Lightning round: Freddy or Jason? Stephen King or H.P. Lovecraft? Practical or CGI? Post Apocalypse or Pre Apocalypse?

Jason, Stephen King, practical with hints of CGI. I love both Pre and Post Apocalypse! So hard, I’ll go for Post!

How do you go about creating the props and sets for your film? How do you create objects that are relatable but unfamiliar?

I have a background within the art department of film and TV so props and design aspects of any film I find fairly easy to create and to find a team of skilled art department to help make them!

And finally, Ghostface would like to know ‘What’s your favourite scary movie?’

The Thing, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien, Terminator 2!